Football Food – Copycat Crispy Chicken Wonton Tacos
The biggest football day of the year is on Sunday and if you're planning a get-together with friends and want to serve something that will impress them, something other than chips, pizza, and wings, I've got you covered!
My husband and I are HUGE fans of the crispy chicken wonton taco appetizer that a local restaurant (which is named after a fruit) sells, but the thing is that when you get them at the restaurant, you're only given four mini tacos and they cost nearly ten bucks, so they're a bit pricey.
Tired of paying so much, my husband, I decided to see if we could recreate the recipe for ourselves at home. The process of perfecting our recipe involved a whole lot of trial and error, but we finally created a recipe that we think is a good enough copycat that we can share it with you. So here you have it, our copycat recipe for crispy chicken wonton tacos, which by the way, are a big hit whenever we make them for football watching parties!
Ingredients:
- 6-8 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, grilled (or you can use pre-packaged grilled chicken chunks if you're pressed for time)
- 1 tablespoon stir fry oil (you can use other types of oil, but they tend to smoke up)
- 1 package of dry coleslaw mix
- 1/4 cup diced red onion
- Asian vinaigrette dressing (Kraft makes one called 'Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing' and I'm obsessed with it. You can find it locally at places like Target or Walmart)
- 1 package of medium sized square wonton wrappers
- 1 cup vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- Limes, cut into cute little wedges
Instructions:
In a big bowl, mix together the dry coleslaw mix (don't use the coleslaw dressing that comes with it!), cilantro and diced red onion.
Pour the Asian vinaigrette into the coleslaw mix. You really don't need much- just enough to coat the coleslaw- we used about 1/4 of a cup. But if you really like the taste, feel free to add more!
Stir the coleslaw mixture together until all of the ingredients are well combined and then pop it in the fridge for at least an hour. We found that it was easiest to mix up the slaw mixture by using our hands, but make sure that you wash them well before and after!
Grill the chicken breasts and cut them into small cubes. In a preheated skillet, warm up the stir fry oil. When the oil is hot, add the grilled chicken. Fry the chicken in the oil for about 2 minutes or so until it's hot and coated in stir fry oil. Remove the chicken from skillet and add 1 cup of vegetable oil to the pan. (We also coated the chicken in the vinaigrette because we really wanted that Asian taste.)
Lay down a “strip” of cubed and fried chicken in the center of a wonton wrapper. Fold the wrapper so that it resembles a taco.
Fry the wonton wrapper with the chicken inside for about 30 seconds or so until wonton wrapper is golden brown and crispy. You want to be sure to keep the wonton open- don’t let it seal or it won’t really be a taco. To keep it from sealing, hold the top flap up with a pair of tongs until the wonton starts to fry.
Top each taco with coleslaw mix and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro. Give everyone a little lime wedge to squeeze over their tacos.